I am an avid puzzles enthusiast and compile various types of puzzles as a hobby - Alpha-Numero, Cipher, Logic Grid, Phone-a-Puzzle, Target and Word Search - all of which are compiled using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.

I used to work with gearce who had some puzzles posted in xkcd but regrettably no longer due to unforeseen circumstances.

Crime, Thriller and Mystery which appears below is from my Logic Grid Puzzles Collection. I normally submit my puzzles as a PDF attachment which includes a grid but unfortunately cannot find a way here to do this. Hope you enjoy

Crime, Thriller and Mystery.

Story

Over the next five weeks Jessica, Laurie, Mark, Mary, and Sally, members of the local Weekly Book Club are hosting discussions of five bestselling authors' novels. Each club meeting will be at a different member's house, and each will feature a different one of the five books.

The books chosen for discussion are Crisis, End of Watch, Love You Dead, Rogue Lawyer, and The Cartel.The authors are Don Winslow, Frank Gardner, John Grisham, Peter James, and Stephen King.The published dates are May 22, 2015, Oct 20, 2015, Jun 02, 2016, Jun 07, 2016, and Jun 09, 2016.

The members, books, authors, and published dates do not necessarily relate to each other in the order listed.

From this information and the following clues, can you determine, for each member, the hosting order, the book which they chose, the author, and the date when it was published?

Clues

1. The Frank Gardner publication is scheduled for the first discussion.2. Of the two books published in 2015, the earlier is scheduled for the final discussion at Sally’s house one week after the discussion of John Grisham’s Rogue Lawyer.3. The men will host consecutive discussions of the books published on Jun 7, 2016 and Jun 9, 2016 following the discussion of Crisis at Mary’s house.4. One of the women will not host a discussion of a book published in 2015.5. Neither of the men will host a discussion of The Cartel.6. John Grisham’s Rogue Lawyer was not published in 2016.7. Love You Dead, the latest of the 2016 publications, is scheduled mid-term for discussion at Mark’s house.8. The Peter James publication is scheduled for discussion before that at Jessica’s house but later than Stephen King’s publication.

George

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The number of times it's been used isn't what matters; if it did, then you'd say that someone named Mary was more likely to be male than someone named Constantine, since Constantine was only used 4,040 times as a boy's name (even though Constantine was never used as a boy's name). http://www.babynameshub.com/gendercompare.cfm?Name=Constantine

What matters is the percentage of times the name was used that it was a boy's name, and it is entirely coincidental that the ordering is the same for that particular set of four names. Using the statistics from your links:0.042% of people named Laurie are boys.0.248% of people named Jessica are boys.0.335% of people named Mary are boys.0% of people named Sally are boys.

And even that information is not very useful, since it summarizes all births since 1880 and therefore probably isn't an accurate representation of the population relevant to this question.

As enlightening as this discussion is, it can actually be deduced from the clues themselves who the second male is (and, in fact, if you assume a binary gender system, the gender of every person can be deduced):

Spoiler:

By clue 5, there must be exactly two men due to grammar. By clue 3, the men host discussions of books published in 2016, and they host them after Mary does, so Mary is not a man but a woman. By clue 2, week 5 is held at Sally's house, but it is of a book published in 2015, so Sally is not a man but a woman. Also by clue 2, week 4 is of John Grisham's Rogue Lawyer, which by clue 6 was not published in 2016. Since by clue 1 week 1 is of Frank Gardner's book, by clue 8 Jessica, who hosts discussions after the Peter James book and the Stephen King book, must host the week 4 discussion, and therefore must not be a man but a woman. Therefore, the two men can only be Mark and Laurie.

Sorry for spoiling the fun.

On a more serious note to the author, I do carry the solution out to the end below, but I took the phrase "scheduled mid-term" to mean that the discussion took place in week 3, the middle week. I assume this is what you intended, but it was not immediately obvious to me. I'm not entirely sure what to suggest as an alternative, but I would think there's a better one out there somewhere.

Spoiler:

Since by clue 2 the week 5 book discussion is the earlier-published 2015 book, it was published on May 22, 2015, and Rogue Lawyer was published on Oct 20, 2015. By clue 3 the discussion of the book published on Jun 02, 2016 was hosted by a woman, which could only be Mary, who hosted the discussion of Crisis. By clue 8, the Stephen King book was discussed before the Peter James book, which was discussed before Jessica hosted, so the Stephen King book was discussed week 2 and the Peter James book was discussed week 3, which leaves only week 5 for the Don Winslow book discussion. By clue 5 the discussion of The Cartel was not hosted by a man, so it was hosted by Sally. By clue 7, Love You Dead was published on Jun 09, 2016, and its discussion was hosted by Mark in week 3, meaning week 2 could only be the discussion hosted by Laurie of End of Watch, published on Jun 07, 2016.

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

MisterGC wrote:cjr22As a matter of interest may I see both of your solutions?

Sure, my first one is

Spoiler:

14,11,23,22,18,19,26,9,13,5,15,12,617,24,10,8,4,16,20,21,25,2,3,1,7

And the second

Spoiler:

14,11,23,22,26,15,18,13,9,5,19,12,617,24,10,8,4,16,20,21,25,2,3,1,7

Based on the "extra" I assume the first is the one you intended?

Thanks for your reply.

George

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Solution to Cipher Puzzle Number 1: THE POWER OF ACCURATE OBSERVATION IS COMMONLY CALLED CYNICISM BY THOSE WHO HAVE NOT GOT IT.

George

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________

When we're gaun up the hill o’ fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

A guy broke into my apartment last week. He didn’t take my TV, just stole the remote. Now he drives by at night and changes the channels..____________________________________________________________________________________________________